Mystery Solved!

The paths behind the new house are wide, well-groomed, but there’s no *obvious* way to access these paths from the outside, and the property owner is some distance away, down hill, and across a creek or two.

I walked a big chunk looking for easier access, and then drove around searching for a connector from perimeter roads. 

Nothing. 

One path that runs along a lower creek had a small section that jogged left, but 150 yards down that, I decided that was it not “it,” as it was blocked by a downed tree and looked like it had seen far less maintenance than the other paths — it was thick with leaves and small branches, and had an entire trunk across the middle.

The breakthrough was when I looked at platt maps (the aerial maps just show forest), and I realized the *only* possible entrance was a tongue of land that ran into the forest conservation from the cul de sac. That tongue of land was right next to my long driveway.  

Huh.  The path I had written off as a “not likely entrance” *had* to be it.

And it is.

From the cul de sac, there’s not much evidence this is an entrance to anything. A driveway? Nope. Can’t be. But if you look past the grass, and just before the forest leaves, there’s a small patch of crumbling asphalt.

Bingo. That’s the only “tell” from the cul de sac.

The first and second pictures are from the cul-de sac, and I assure you it’s not obvious this is an entrance. The last picture shows the “obvious” clean and mossy path turning right. The path I thought could not possibly be the access point forks to the left and is uncleared.

Mystery solved!